Lawmakers, interest groups already calling for changes to immigration bill

Even before the details of a sweeping immigration reform deal were released this week, lawmakers and "stakeholders" on all sides of the issue began carving out changes they say are needed for the bill to become law.

Immigration rights groups want to reverse measures that tilt preferences in the visa system toward merit, rather than family reunification. Some labor unions want to scuttle the vast new guest worker program. And conservatives are blasting a plan that opens the door to legal status to some 12 million people now in the country illegally.

But the breadth of the coalition backing this bill – and the political skills of its sponsors – will give this bill momentum, as it faces a Senate debate next week and a perilous passage through the House in July.

Sen. Lindsay Graham (R) of South Carolina, a key negotiator, predicted that support in the Senate "will be overwhelming, as long as the agreement holds together." A weary aide put it more bluntly: "Now, we're all about to become piñatas for our respective groups." [Editor's note:The original version misidentified Lindsay Graham's party.]

At the heart of the deal is a tradeoff: legal status for some 12 million undocumented people in exchange for sweeping new enforcement provisions – and the enforcement system must be in place first.

These border security benchmarks or "triggers," include 18,000 new border patrol agents, construction of 200 miles of vehicle barriers and 370 miles of fencing, 70 radar and camera towers along the US southern border with Mexico, and resources to detain up to 27,500 people per day – measures designed to help end the practice of "catch-and-release." In addition, the Secretary of Homeland Security must certify the existence of secure and effective identification documents to prevent unauthorized work.

The draft law provides that these benchmarks be met before most other features of the law, including a new guest worker program, can begin.

The proposed law also creates a new temporary worker program – Republicans emphasize the word "temporary" – to provide jobs that US employers are unable to fill. This Y-1 visa program starts with a cap of 400,000 guest workers, but it can go up to 600,000 in the first year, based on "market fluctuations." The Y visa numerical cap will be adjusted every fiscal year. Under this plan, temporary workers would have to leave after two years, but could reapply after a year out of the country. "Temporary means temporary," says Sen. Jon Kyl (R) of Arizona, the lead GOP negotiator.

In a bid to woo trade union support, the program requires that guest workers be paid "prevailing competitive wages," to avoid driving down the wages of American workers. AFL-CIO president John Sweeney says the proposed "massive" guest worker program "will allow employers to import hundreds of thousands of temporary workers every year to perform permanent jobs throughout the economy." In the end, it will drive down wages, benefits, and heath and safety standards for US workers, he says.

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